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Zenger
Zenger
Business
Melanie Schaffer

Here’s What You Could Buy With Elon Musk’s Fortune

Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves the Phillip Burton Federal Building on January 24, 2023, in San Francisco, California. Musk is worth $171 billion and the second-wealthiest person in the world. JUSTIN SULLIVAN/BENZINGA

Elon Musk is the second richest person in the world as of Sunday, with a net worth of $171 billion compared to Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton founder and CEO Bernard Arnault, who is worth $195 billion.

Musk’s net worth puts him in the position to buy almost anything imaginable. Perhaps that’s why the sky isn’t even the limit when the multi-billionaire dreams of the future. Afterall, the Tesla CEO has predicted humans could colonize Mars, an uninhabitable planet, by as early as 2029.

A Gulfstream GVI G650ER takes off at Los Angeles international Airport on July 30, 2022, in Los Angeles, California. Musk currently flies in a Gulfstream G650ER. AARON P/BENZINGA

With the deadline to file taxes quickly approaching on April 18, some may be wondering what Musk would have to pay if he were to liquidate his assets and head out on a spending spree.

With the new Twitter CEO being placed in the highest tax bracket, Musk could owe the government approximately 20% of his worth in long-term capital gains if he were to liquidate the stock he owns, especially considering that most of his wealth comes from owning shares of Tesla. That means Musk’s net worth would immediately drop from about $171 billion to $137 billion.

The difference between one million and one billion is massive. One billion is 1,000 times more than one million, but if that doesn’t offer perspective, maybe the following comparisons will shed light on how rich Musk really is.

If someone were to make $1 million per year, they would earn about $480.77 per hour. If a person were to bring in $1 billion per year, however, their hourly rate would increase to $480,769.

For further perspective, using time as an analogy, one million seconds equates to about 11.5 days, while one billion seconds equates to about 31.7 years.

A brand-new Boeing 747-8 jet is valued at $418.4 million. With 137 billion, Musk could purchase 328 of these airplanes.

Musk currently flies in a Gulfstream G650ER that is worth $70 million.

He previously owned 5 houses in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air.

Despite Tesla slashing prices of its vehicles recently, a Model Y variant still goes for about $50,000. The billionaire could buy 2.74 million of the vehicles.

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” sold for $450 million in 2017, according to Tuko. Although only one exists, Musk could buy about 304,500 paintings valued at that same amount with his fortune.

Although Musk couldn’t afford to buy all the top 50 most valuable pro sports teams in the world, which were valued at a combined 222.7 billion as of 2022, according to One37, he could buy the equivalent of about 17 teams valued at $8 billion — roughly the value of the Mark Cuban-owned Dallas Mavericks.

Produced in association with Benzinga

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